Live Review: Drake

8 November 2017 | 10:41 am | Sally Anne Hurley

"This shit is magical."

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Warm-up guys Boi 1da and Pierre Bourne crank out a solid run of hip hop hits to get this show started. Kendrick Lamar's HUMBLE., Kanye and Jay Z's Niggas In Paris and Cardi B's Bodak Yellow set the tone for how loose things are gonna get tonight.

We're all excitedly waiting for the man of the moment to emerge and given the stage is smack bang in the middle of the arena, we're also wondering how he's going to appear. Will flying Drizzy make an appearance again, like he did at his first Sydney show in 2015? Some of us are hopeful. In the end, a long, moveable tunnel is brought out to let Drake through the crowd inconspicuously and he rises from the middle of the stage to absolute rapture. We are ready to daggy-dad dance with him.

The first part of his set features a few mainstays of the Drake catalogue (Started From The Bottom, Headlines), and he tears through a frantic medley featuring Worst Behavior and Crew Love. There's gonna be a lot of crowd participation tonight - Drake is sharing the love.

A quick wardrobe change (really just a moment to put on a jacket) and Drake returns to the stage, and the beat of Hotline Bling sends us all a little bonkers. There are also these super cool light balls that are lit up pink for Bling and they start floating down and around the stage. This shit is magical. Things slow down a bit with Hold On, We're Going Home and Passionfruit, the latter turning into a sweet slow jam and eventually, a boss rendition of Teenage Fever, which samples Jennifer Lopez's If You Had My Love.

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Drake clearly loves the sound of his own voice, as do we, as he continues to express his love for Sydney. It's a big love fest, but some of us kinda just want you to do your thing, man. When he does his thing, it's too good. Speaking of 'too good', Drizzy gives airtime to his pal Rihanna, with a short medley of some of their collaborations, including Work and Too Good.

A dance battle between Drake's two incredible dancers adds a bit of extra fun, and twerking, to the night and leads perfectly into One Dance. Soon after, what looks to be a giant cocoon forming on stage turns into the world - it is the Boy Meets World tour after all - and Drake menaces around it for the final few songs of the night.

Know Yourself and Fake Love are finale standouts before Drake tells us again just how legendary we've been tonight, which fittingly leads into Legend. It's the final song of the night. Drake shares after his Boy Meets World tour finishes, he won't be vacationing, but heading back to Toronto to make us the best damn album he can make. We'll hold you to that, Drizzy.